Customer Reviews

My Young Years

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Terrific -- and it sounds like it really was written by Arthur (Artur?) himself. It's almost diary-like in its detail, and everything is fascinating. We get a lot of juicy personal stuff, including love-life stuff and, on the other side of the coin, his young failed attempt at suicide. My own favorite part of the book is his very detailed reminiscence of the piano competition that he entered, and LOST; what's interesting is how this great, beloved, infinitely-accomplished pianist and man-of-the-world apparently never lost his hurt and bitterness over this stupid competition -- kind of like if Derek Jeter or Barry Bonds went on and on about the time they got shafted by an umpire in Little League. I don't mean this as a criticism of him; if anything, the opposite -- it's an example of how much he was just like the rest of us, which probably was a big part of why we loved him so much.

Although I sometimes wonder how much of the book is fiction, I think the book is an incredible blend of Rubenstein's personal life with his public career. I literally could not put the book down. The book allowed me to put a personal life with the public figure and recordings that I have of him.

Rubenstein has a very flowing, easy-to-read writing style and includes details that made me feel like I actually met him and the people he knew. Like all great autobiographies that I read, this one made me want to know what happened to some of the people he met.

I was **very** disappointed when I finished the book and yearned for more information about his life. It was only when I came across the title on Amazon.com that I found he wrote another autobiography. I can't wait to buy it.

I first read the book when I was in college in about 1974. I couldn't put the book down. At the time Rubenstein was the greatest in my mind. I later bought a copy of the book at a used book store in Sonoma Valley.

Rubinstein, an assimilated Polish Jew, is beloved by Poles for his spontaneous display of patriotism. He played the Polish National Anthem, at the very first meeting of the United Nations in 1945, in protest of the fact that Poland (that is, the rightful, non-Communist Polish Government, in exile during WWII) had been denied representation in this new international body.

This book is about Rubinstein's childhood and early career as a pianist. My review focuses on matters related to life in foreign-ruled Poland. For a time, Rubinstein's love for Poland was not in a patriotic sense. (p. 13). Later, he identified himself explicitly as a Polish patriot in response to the Prussian mistreatment of the Poles. (p. 44). When news came of Poland being in the process of resurrection as an independent state, Rubinstein wanted to join the Polish forces. (pp. 433-444).

While a boy, Rubinstein had personally experienced a Russian-made pogrom in Russian-ruled Poland. (p. 12). Later in life, he came to know pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski, and rejected accusations that Paderewski had been an anti-Semite. (p. 81). While on a concert tour, Rubinstein was avoided by Fritz Mueller, a budding German composer, and Rubinstein suspected anti-Semitism as the motive. It turned out that Mueller was merely afraid of him personally. (pp. 277-278).

Rubinstein had discussions with his fellow Jews, in which the themes centered on Jews as victims and Jews as objects of envy. (pp. 364-365). Earlier, however, he had voiced frank criticism of certain aspects of Jewish conduct. He said: "My point of view was that anti-Semitism, in many ways, was justifiable. `When I see these rich Jews and their wives behaving in public the way they do, showing off their wealth, their jewels, their furs, pushing themselves forward wherever they go, I can understand the indignation of the Gentiles.'" (p. 363).

Rubinstein's attitudes towards Orthodox Jews paralleled that of those (e.g., reputed members of Haller's Army) who humiliated them. When reminded by his friend Dr. Goldflam that only a small minority of Jews were wealthy, Rubinstein retorted: "'All right, doctor, all right,' I argued hotly, `but what do we have on the other hand? The ghettos? These masses of meek little men with their beards and side curls, afraid of everything and everybody? Why don't they use their born gifts and intelligence for something better than buying and selling clothes? It infuriates me when anti-Semitic Poles slander us, calling us Jews usurers and thieves. I know that we have, fortunately, a highly cultured elite, too,...but it is too small--it is unable to offset the bad effect of the rest." (p. 363).

Earlier in life, Rubinstein's opinions had been even stronger: "We had been brought up in the Polish language. We were little concerned about Jewish laws or dogma, although we were always proud of our race. Still, I do remember having been derisively critical of the Polish Orthodox Jews, with their long black coats and their sidelocks and beards and their singsong. My father had taken me, once or twice, to a synagogue, but only for musical reasons--to hear a famous cantor perform--and on these occasions there was a curious mixture of Jewish worshippers and Christians who were enthusiastic about the singer." (pp. 46-47). [Misconduct against Orthodox Jews was hardly limited to some of Haller's men. The informed reader realizes that, even in modern Israel, Orthodox Jews sometimes face humiliations--in this case from fellow Jews.]

Now consider German-Polish relations. Rubinstein described how the Poles thwarted the harsh Prussian measures: "Being fervent Catholics, they produced many more children than their oppressors or any other European country--the Germans used to call them, derisively, `Polnische Karnickel' (slang for Polish rabbits). But that wasn't all--overnight these carefree, free-spending, light-hearted people turned into first-rate economists. In order to fight the German offensive, clergy, peasants, and landowners pooled their money, opened banks and other organizations of credit, and thus, well-armed, succeeded in buying, often under assumed German names, twice as much land as they had been losing to the settlers. The whole province became divided into two fanatically hostile groups..." (p. 44).

Accounts of WWI German atrocities were not all GREUELPROPAGANDA (propaganda of horrors). Rubinstein reports how the Germans had murdered a noted fellow composer, Alberic Magnard, for not being polite enough to them. From then on, Rubinstein swore to avoid Germany in his concert tours. (p. 439).